Happy 4th of July to all our American readers and anyone elsewhere that has an affinity for American holidays. Since this Top 5 Friday happens to take place on America's Independence Day I figured we take a look at the top patriotic characters to grace the pages of DC Comics, and when I say top I mean my own personal favorites because taking an unbiased approach to this just seems like way to much work, and it is a holiday after all. So if you'll excuse my laziness, I hope you can sit back and enjoy a look at the heroes that have donned the red white and blue from the beginning of World War II, to the present day. Let's get started with Top 5 Patriotic Heroes In DC Comics.
#5. Liberty Belle
Now with my proximity to Philadelphia and for my love of the Flyers, I have to give a shout out or whatever the kids are calling it now to the Philadelphia native Liberty Belle. Libby Lawrence's powers of enhanced strength, speed, and stamina were somehow linked to the ringing of the Liberty Bell, and if that power up process wasn't strange enough she even had a Liberty Bell security guard that would ring the bell when signaled. Kind of like Batman getting powered up every time the Bat Signal would be lit. Libby was a founding member of the All Star Squadron, and in my mind the counterpart to Hour Man from the Justice Society of America. I say counterpart purely on the strange way they activate their powers, and I think that's the reason I love both these heroes so much, I dig the strange. Now I don't won't to take forever dealing out the history of Liberty Belle, just know that she is a patriot and I hope we get a New 52 All Star Squadron book to coincide with Grant Morrison's Multiversity coming out. Let's move on, because I could really just keep talking about Liberty Belle all day.
#4. Uncle Sam
Now I'm sure all of you out there in interwebs land will give me shit that I didn't pick good old Uncle Sam as #1 on this list, you know him being the physical representation of America and all. But what can I say even as an avid comic book reader when I was a child I didn't find out about this character until the interwebs hit, and all the nerdy information I could ever want was at my fingertips. So not being a life long fan an all, I have to say that I still love this character for his supernatural origins, and being a figure that is a lot like The Spectre, at least in my opinion. Uncle Sam is the product of an occult ritual performed by America's founding fathers to be the Spirit of America whenever it's needed. Uncle Sam will merge with a dying patriot to have a host on the physical plane, and that's why I see this character to be a figure similar to The Spectre, with out all the wrath and vengeance. Like I said about Liberty Belle, Uncle Sam is a figure that needs to be explored more in current comics because younger readers, or people that don't read anything outside the heroes in the Justice League will never know about the Spirit of America that fights for their freedom in and out of his group the Freedom Fighters.
#3. Commander Steel
Like most of these heroes I'm not getting specific with what iteration I'm talking about, it's really up to you the reader to decide which version of Liberty Belle, Uncle Sam, or Commander Steel you call your own. That being said look at the ridiculous bulge that Commander Steel is packing. Oh yeah we're doing hero talk. Henry Heywood was a marine who was injured during an attack on his base. Now I guess you can say that Henry was lucky that he had a doctor friend who apparently liked to perform experimental surgery on people, and after having steel grafted into him Henry possessed super human strength, speed, and durability. Kind of like a precursor to Wolverine, but this heroic figure makes the list because he used his power to fight for freedom during World War II, and then passed on the Steel name to two members of his family. Now unlike before where I was talking about updated versions of the character, Commander Steel has one that we saw in one issue of Earth 2, where the character walked into a Apokoliptian fire pit, and to my knowledge hasn't been seen again. So maybe after Tom Taylor finishes up his Kryptonian story arc in Earth 2, we'll be able to see this character again soon.
#2. Star Spangled Kid and Stripesy
Now I'm not doing Stargirl this time because I just had her on a list the other week, besides the fact that Sripesy was on that list too it's all about these two being the precursor to that character, and stop complaining at least for #2 you get a twofer. This pair being highly skilled in acrobats and hand to hand combat just decided to put on costumes and just go fight the Nazis. It'd be like The Flying Graysons just deciding to say "Fuck the circus, let's go stop the Nazis". But these two fought for our country and survived the war to become icons of Golden Age superheroes, and members of the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Sadly The Star Spangled Kid would die by the severed hand of Mister Bones, being held by Solomon Grundy. Yeah that's a fucked up death. But his legacy would live on through his side kick Stripesy and his step daughter Courtney Whitmore in the further adventure of Star Girl and STRIPE. Red White and Blue all the way boys. Good job.
#1. Yankee Poodle
Now I'm not making fun of America by making Yankee Poodle #1, all I'm saying is if a anthropomorphic poodle can get more patriotic then me, then she deserves the spot. I don't even know if they celebrate The 4th of July on Earth-C, and she still sports the Red White and Blue garb like a champ. This patriotic poodle named Rova Barklitt got her powers when the evil Starro The Conqueror launched a meteor at Earth-C, or Earth-26 whatever you prefer, and a fragment of that meteor struck the K-9 intrepid reporter giving her the power of animal magnetism. Which somehow relates to her shooting stars from one hand to repel objects and shooting stripes from the other to attract objects. Yeah...... Animal Magnetism. No matter how silly she looks or what silly powers she might have Yankee Poodle sports the Stars and Stripes like no other in her team the Zoo Crew, and for that she gets the #1 spot, and our thanks for being a patriotic poodle.
Honorable mention here to The Comedian who almost made it on the list before I checked my morals and figured a rapist shouldn't be included when talking about patriots. That's it for this week's Top 5 Fridays, I hope you enjoyed it on your holiday weekend, and remember to be careful out there because patriotism doesn't equate to alcohol poisoning. See you next week for a all new all unprepared Weird Science Top 5 Fridays. See you in seven.
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